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While checking spelling I came across something I either never noticed before or have long forgotten. The phrase double entendre is in the English dictionary but not the word entendre alone. Is it incorrect then to use entendre in English without the qualifier double? I hereby, and humbly, submit this for the "tsuwm treatment"! 
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I think it is a sly insult to the French, to suggest that only they are guilty of duplicitous hidden meanings.
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Good one, Dr. Bill, you foxy one, you! 
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Pooh-Bah
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Then there is the all-too-common null entendre.
BTW, there is a French word for a pun across two languages, but damned if I can remember it...anyone?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I remember reading somewhere that the French don't actually use the expression double entendre themselves. Whether because they take it for granted or because they have never indulged in the practice and so never needed a name for it, I couldn't say.
Bingley
Bingley
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W'ON, a good question. In "double entendre" the whole phrase, that is both words, is French and is usually, in my experience, pronounced as such - (dooblah not dubble). I can't see any real denigration in the phrase, so I can't see why we English would try to poke fun at the French with it - if we could we would, I assure you! But you are right, the word "entendre" is not used alone in English. Borrowing of phrases and words from other languages seems to follow no logic.
The phrase "single entendre" is used sometimes to denote a more obvious sexual connotation.
Rod
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this isn't in response to your query, WO'N, but i thought it'd be a nice segue to a question that i'd been pondering but never bothered to post on.
double entendres are an endless source of fascination for me (and aren't there a lot of names for them? amphibolous, dilogical, etc? hi, c!), so you can imagine my delight when i stumbled across the term "illocutionary" a while back, defined as "pertaining to or describing an utterance that, reflecting the speaker's emotions, conveys more or something other than its literal meaning, such as a question implying dissatisfaction".
is there another, more common, term for this common verbal phenomenon? 'sarc(h)asm' doesn't seem to describe it adequately, since it's not really as specific.
oh, and what on EARTH have you all been smoking lately? i return from a week or so away and find some of the strangest threads i've ever seen. sheesssh.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Double entendre is like resume . Non-existent in "that" hi F language. Well, resume exists but it means something else: synopsis.
And caradea, don't go away again without letting us know. We smoked a lotta weird stuff in your absence.
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Illocutionary isn't really the same as double entendre.
The illocutionary force of an utterance is shown when for example we all understand that a question like "Have you got a pen?" is actually a request to borrow a pen rather than a simple question about whether you happen to be in possession of one.
Bingley
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resume exists (in French) but it means something else: synopsis
AnnaS. Doesn't résumé mean synopsis in US? It does in UK.
And "double entendre" had the same meaning in French when it was borrowed into English, but is now obselete.
Rod
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